It’s one month into 2018. How’s your New Years Resolution holding up? If you need a new one either because you accomplished it or because you didn’t, I’m going to share mine: Smile.

I’ve been working on this project for a couple of years. I visited Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Orleans and asked hundreds of people to write down or draw something that makes them Smile and every fun, silly, heartwarming response made me smile too. I sat editing this video and realized that my face hurt because there is an involuntary psychological response to smiling: smiling. Smiles are contagious and they spread happiness. We need more joy, especially in 2018.

I wrote this I Wish I Were A Dinosaur song at a time when I wasn’t happy at all. I wrote it to remind myself to smile. This video is selfish. I wanted a cheat sheet because as I get older and older it seems like it gets easier and easier to get beaten down by life. I wanted this to be something I could always refer back to whenever I realized that I needed a reason to smile.

What makes you smile? For the rest of 2018, I’m going to challenge you to share it. Loud and proud. If you want to do it like people did in the video and put it on social media here’s a hashtag: #MAKESMESMILE

The world is desperate for smiles. Share your smile with people you love and people you don’t and encourage them to share their smile with you. Let’s see what happens.

A huge thanks goes out to everyone who shared their smile with a random guy on the street with a bucket of markers, paper, and a camera. Thank you to Israel Peck for being my PA at a moment’s notice instead of watching the Bears game. Thanks to Jaysin Osterkamp from Night Owls Media for filming me from the ground and the air. Thanks to Elijah Lucian for singing the hook and to @Kaela Caron for getting his grumpy butt in the video.